User: sex_and_race (posted by karnythia) Date: 2008-07-23 21:01 Subject: The Audacity of Bodily Autonomy Security: Public

Surgeon sued for giving anesthetized patient temporary tattoo. The tattoo was not at all medical in nature. She had surgery for a herniated disc and the next morning discovered a rose tattoo had been placed on her abdomen below her panty line. The doctor doesn't deny doing it. In fact he claims he does this with all his patients to lift their spirits after surgery. Now, the really interesting (and disturbing) thing about this situation is how people have reacted to this woman's decision to sue. The comments on this article are just the tip of the iceberg. Many people seem to be outraged by this woman being willing to sue this doctor for marking her (however temporarily) in her pelvic area without her permission.

We've all gone the rounds about the politics of choice as it applies to reproduction. But the idea that women's bodies are public property doesn't stop there. Catcalling, comments on weight, comments on hair or makeup from strangers are all just symptoms of a larger societal delusion that women's bodies are a commodity first. Somehow we've gotten stuck in this idea that a woman's valuing of her body as a part of her self comes second because her first role is to belong to the world at large. Women who refuse to accept that paradigm and insist on being recognized as people first whether it be by yelling back at catcallers, refusing to let strangers touch them, or filing suit when they feel they've been violated are then castigated for having the temerity to think that they can dictate what happens to their bodies. Apparently we're just supposed accept these "lesser" intrusions and not take steps to reclaim that sense of safety because nice girls know their place and don't delude themselves that they have a right to feel safe and comfortable.

Well, I'm with the women who yell back, who walk away, who press charges and file lawsuits. Because it is past time we got past this idea that being nice = being a willing victim that never complains. I don't want to live in a reality where people think marking an unconscious woman without her permission is a-okay because it's temporary, or he didn't mean any harm, or there's no proof that he "actually molested her" so she shouldn't seek legal recourse. I know I'm talking crazy, but wouldn't be nice to live in a world where women were viewed as people first? Where people didn't blame the victim, but instead celebrated her willingness to fight back?

User: jaylake Date: 2008-07-23 18:13 Subject: [personal] Open questions thread Security: Public Tags: personal

I officially declare this an open questions thread. Ask me anything. I make no promises about the answers, of course. (Response times may be delayed due to travel and other events.)

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

User: jaylake Date: 2008-07-23 18:09 Subject: [travel] Off again Security: Public Tags: green, omaha, personal, seattle, travel, writing

Well, I’m off again at the crack of doom. Heading back to Seattle for tomorrow’s signing with Brenda Cooper at University Books. (Dinner to precede, meet at 5 pm on the corner by the book store, or call me.) I’ll work from the home of the lovely and talented on Friday, then make my way toward the Clarion West party that night before returning home to Nuevo Rancho Lake on Saturday.

Got editorial feedback on “In the Forests of the Night”. Somewhat to my amazement, the feedback was positive and quite minimal. I’ll be a lot tougher on myself in the rewrite, frankly. All good. Meanwhile, Green continues apace. This is a pretty good book, truth be told.

I’m tired as heck, and the antibiotics make my mouth taste like pennies, but otherwise I feel rather myself tonight. As usual, expect continued light blogging through Sunday.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

User: helwen Date: 2008-07-23 20:06 Subject: Gardening Security: Public Mood: busy Tags: garden

.... perhaps I should grow rice next year.... although usually it isn't so wet up here. We'll see what next year brings, I guess.

Meantime, picked lettuces, also turns out some of the wax beans were ready, yay! Also more blueberries. I even picked my FIL's bush and brought his in for him. The blueberries from our bushes did not make it into the house... ;)

Picked more black raspberries a couple of days ago :)

The corn and tomatoes need more sun.

The oats are surviving (so far).

There are squash bug eggs on the squash leaves. We have to watch for when they hatch and then spray them :( I'm not crazy about that, but apparently the best time to eliminate these marauders (and there are a _lot_ of eggs), is in their nymph mode. Hopefully this will happen soon, since we're going on vacation next week... The Japanese beetles are also evil, but L and I have been working on that...

The three big plants Doris and I bought for helping spruce things up for the family reunion next month went in yesterday - Sea Holly (Eryngia), Rudbeckia, and Echinacea. Today I put a Threadleaf Coreopsis (lacy with yellow flowers) into the center of a hanging pot and then edged it with Creeping Speedwell (Veronica). If I have time before we go away, I'll do some more weeding around the house too, to help out with spiffying the place up.

I also have some Lambs' Ear and Bronze Fennel to put in the herb garden :)

I've fallen rather horribly behind in weeding some parts of the veggie and herb gardens, with all the rain, sigh. I don't mind a few weeds, but the grass that spreads out in a big circle is annoying.

User: cid_yama Date: 2008-07-23 17:31 Subject: Militants say they will destroy Nigerian oil pipelines Security: Public

Nigeria's main militant group threatened Wednesday to destroy the nation's major oil pipelines within 30 days to counter allegations it had struck a $12 million deal with the government to protect them.

The state-run oil company, however, denied the existence of such a deal and said local media had misquoted company officials.

A spokesman for the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta alleged the director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had claimed his state-run organization paid militants millions of dollars to protect pipelines instead of attacking them.

To prove "we are not a part of this deal, the Chanomi Creek pipeline and other major pipelines will be destroyed within the next 30 days," the militant statement said.

The Chanomi Creek pipeline is owned by Nigeria's state oil company and is strategic line that supplies crude from western Delta to two major refineries.

"MEND will never sell its birthright for a bowl of porridge when the impoverished masses in the region continue to live in abject poverty," the statement said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/23/news/Nigeria-Oil-Unrest.php

User: compost_wackos (posted by evan_brennan) Date: 2008-07-23 14:25 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public Mood: embarrassed

So I am sure you've had a million newbie questions and maybe you can point me to archives and info. 

User: arcaedia Date: 2008-07-23 14:58 Subject: not a query Security: Public

I just got something that wasn't a query at all. It was someone wanting to know if I would read their book and review it on my blog. How unexpected (to me anyway -- maybe I shouldn't be so surprised?). And somehow surreal. So, I had to write them back and tell them that I didn't really review books on my blog and the books I tended to promote were by my clients.

Meanwhile, blogging is likely to be a bit light over the next few weeks. Between conferences, I find myself juggling to a great degree, and it appears that blogging falls low on the triage list. And substantive blogging even lower (or perhaps that's a function of being too busy to hear myself think). I will try to keep up with at least the query wars. And I'll plan another Agent Manners session once things get a bit calmer. Thanks everyone for reading and hanging out here. I particularly appreciated all the comments on the right agent, the right author entry.

Feel free to let me know if there are other topics or features you want to see addressed when I have the opportunity to post entries with more depth.

User: little_details (posted by argosy) Date: 2008-07-23 11:53 Subject: Pregnancy Complications Security: Public Tags: medicine: illnesses to order, medicine: reproduction

When: Modern day
Where: Miami
Search terms tried: pregnancy complications, pregnancy complications bleeding, pregnancy complications hospitalization

I have a 33-year-old woman in otherwise reasonably good health in the latter part of her first trimester of pregnancy (could be early to middle of 2nd trimester if it works better for this).

I need some kind of complication that gives her symptoms (like cramps or bleeding) bad enough to land her immediately in the hospital with the baby in great danger. HOWEVER, I can't have the doctors either save the baby or have her lose it right away. I need for there to be about a day where they can't tell if the baby will survive -- doctors could be actively working to save the baby or taking a wait-and-see approach, either way.

What I need to happen is for her boyfriend to arrive at the hospital and not be told immediately the baby is fine or the baby didn't make it. It needs to drag out a bit. Also the baby needs to survive, in the end.

Is there anything that can cause this? It can't be anything like an hit to the stomach. It needs to be something they didn't see coming (although the doctors can have seen a little bit of risk in her pregnancy earlier, just nothing they worried too much about). Ideas?

User: little_details (posted by gypsymoongate) Date: 2008-07-23 11:21 Subject: Birth complications with twins in 17th century Security: Public

Setting: A community of supernatural creatures in southern India in the mid 17th century
Googled: "birth complications twins", "childbirth 17th century", "breech birth twins", "second twin labor complications"

I have a situation where twins are being born to a creature (easiest to call her an elf or a faery) in the mid-17th century. I would like for the first twin to come fairly easily but for the birth of the second twin to be complicated, painful, long, but ultimately successful (survival of both child and mother). What sort of complications might result in this? It looks like a breech birth is a good candidate, but I'd like to hear about other options. I'm also finding conflicting information on whether the birth of a second twin is more or less likely to be complicated than the first twin.

A further complication is that this race of fantasy creatures has not produced living children in a couple of centuries, so their experiences with childbirth are not common or recent. Healing magic is a possibility, but I would like to avoid it, and the medical expertise available in the community is currently up in the air.

Mainly, I would like to know what kinds of birth complications are likely with a second twin, how they might be dealt with given 17th century methods, and what could be the longest amount of time between the birth of the first twin and the second twin while still having both children survive.

Thanks in advance!

User: matociquala Date: 2008-07-23 14:34 Subject: Audiobooks! Security: Public Mood: nostalgic Music: WNPR - Live Stream

I bring you Recorded Books versions of Carnival (available now) and Undertow (coming the day after my birthday. What a fine present!).

Dust will be along eventually, or so I hear, since I just had a phone call with a lovely man yesterday about the pronunciations of the names in the book.

Looking back at my to-do list (previous post) it occurs to me that the whole point of getting the dratted deadline for Chill moved (it looks now as if it will be published for Fall 2009, so never fear; it is not being pushed back a full year) was so I could take some time off from novels and let my brain regrow.

Yes, Bear. Your inner compulsive workaholic is fooling you again. Take a chill pill and actually let the fallow period be, yanno, kind of fallow. Writing is a self-exhaustive act, and you need to remember that you can't go full-bore all the time.

...besides, there are all these short things I need to finish, and I should finish them.

User: little_details (posted by kurotoboe) Date: 2008-07-23 10:48 Subject: Genetic dominance? Security: Public

Alright, so my friend / partner has created a rich, vaguely-powerful family within our comic, and I decided to create another family member on a whim. I pondered with him at the time of outlining the character about A) her hair color - since they all seem to have pastel hair colors (although this is drawn in manga format, so it's understandable) and B) her prowess with the family bloodline abilities.

My friend stated that the members of the family usually have lavender hair - and it seems that all (if not most) of them have the two bloodline powers the family has as well.

I stated that the only way most of the family could have lavender hair was if all of them inbred. He said that about half of them inbred and half of them marry outside the family. It still seemed off to me for the traits to be that strong, especially with the main characters who are from that family. (Example: The main characters' mother is from outside the family and they both have the powers but not the lavender hair. The daughter of the family goes on to marry someone outside the family and two of her three children have the powers, and one has lavender hair.)

I understand it's a fantasy setting and all, but would half of the family inbreeding even be enough for those genes to be so potent or would they still dilute over time? Wouldn't their genes be recessive since only their blood carries the gene for those powers and possibly the hair color? (I've tried punnett squares, but I don't think they work so well with human genotypes.)

Thanks in advance.

User: novel_in_90 (posted by unforth) Date: 2008-07-23 13:26 Subject: Word Count for Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 Security: Public

“Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance.” -Dan Greenburg

Okay, let's admit 'um - what are your main procrastination methods?

Sound off!

User: sfwa (posted by david_de_beer) Date: 2008-07-23 18:25 Subject: Nebula nominee interview Security: Public

Joe Haldeman.

Joe Haldeman has been nominated for and received the Nebula, Hugo, Ditmar, World Fantasy, Galaxy, Rhysling and James Tipree Awards.  The Accidental Time Machine is his 8th Nebula nomination.

User: matociquala Date: 2008-07-23 12:25 Subject: your death sits in that cage and hears you Security: Public Mood: fallow Music: WNPR - Live Stream Tags: honeydew, the writer at work

I am amusing myself by making to-do lists. This is generally a sign that I am not actually yet ready to begin work on any of these projects, but I have recovered enough from the post-novella ennui (the bits of brain I cut off to put in Seven for a Secret and "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood" have not yet grown back, green and bushy.) to feel as if I ought to be working. Still, yesterday was productively spent on book sale stuff, and today, so far, has been much the same. I suspect that probably counts as enough worklike stuff for thse days, though I am going to take a crack at fixing that poem tonight.

How weird, to be working on a poem again after all these years.

I wonder if it's catching.


2008

Revise the mopy Tam Lin poem. Hey, I could do that today and it would be like work.
Revise "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood"
Revise Bone and Jewel Creatures
Write "The Tricks of London"
Write "Mongoose" with truepenny (started)
Finish Chill
Write "Smile" (Bone Garden) (started)
Write "Snow Dragons"
Write "The Horrid Glory of its Wings"
Write S2 Shadow Unit episodes (looks like 2.5 right now, unless stuff changes.)


2009

Rewrite The Sea thy Mistress
Shadow Unit S3
Write Grail

User: matociquala Date: 2008-07-23 09:05 Subject: remember those who win the game lose the love they sought to gain Security: Public Mood: hungry

Heads-up.

Janis Ian is going to be on All Things Considered on NPR tonight, for those of you who are fans.

User: whafford Date: 2008-07-23 13:38 Subject: The Threshold of Doom? Security: Public Tags: dig 2008

 24 June
I made sure I had photos and drawings of the stratigraphy beneath the stones. We had cut up to the threshold block and left a sheer drop here as part of the temple cut and now I was going to destroy part of it, so it had to be documented. It didn’t take too long and then I was ready.

Usually with big stones like this, the workers bring in sledgehammers and break it up to take away in pieces, but on top of this precipice that wasn't going to work. I called Fuad over to make sure the workers understood what I wanted and to ask them if it could be done safely. Fuad’s English is good and Arabic is his native language, so if things get in a crunch, I use him as a translator. The workers said it could be done; I’d expected them to say that, but I wanted to emphasize that there should be no showboating and that we had to do this carefully and safely. They cleared all the soils from around the block and cut a bit from the walls to make sure it was ready to be moved. Then they shifted part of the stone and brought in ropes to get underneath it. Then they shifted it again and finally got the ropes beneath.

As they pulled, the stone ground upwards, toward the higher block to the south. It took four people pulling on the ropes and Ismaien came to help as well. He is a bit more flambouyant than the others and almost caused the whole thing to topple, but but the more level-headed Hassan stopped him and saved the day. Eventually they were able to pull the stone up and out of the way. It had taken a lot of time but we got the block moved safely and I could have them start to cut down into the strata below.

Moving the double block of the lower threshold was comparatively easy and then we cut farther down in stages, creating a short set of stairs here. Unfortunately, we didn’t find a foundation deposit so we still don’t know what god this temple was dedicated to and we still have no written word from anywhere in the site. Of course, there is some packing material left beneath the western most portion of the threshold since we left a bit as part of the staircase. It would be quite frustrating if there was a foundation deposit right in that small area we left.

The stair cut was quick going after the threshold block had come up. There were no finds at all here, though, most of the material beneath was the clean packing laid at the time of founding the temple. After the stairs were cut, I moved the workers up to Op 42 to complete work there. I wanted to get down to a large ash layer visible in the old Op 42 baulk and we only had one more day where we’d have a full crew of workers. Most of our students and supervisors were scheduled to leave on the 30th and so we would need a travel day on the 29th and would have to close the dig completely by the 28th. But in fact, Michael and I would have to speak with the officials in Damascus before we left and we wanted to be there on the 28th for a meeting in which we would turn in our preliminary report, pay the site guard and inspector’s salary, and other administrative duties that had to be taken care of. So we would probably close the site on the 27th. That still left 25 with workers and 26 with just us on the tell completing section drawings, trench photos, and final documentation.

I spent much of my time examining the overall temple cut. Making sense of the layers here had been one of my primary goals of the season and now I finally had the exposure I needed. Naturally we had paid attention to the layers as we cut down through them, separating lots whenever a change in soil was noted, but now I could look still more closely at those changes in a vertical section and try to understand what was going on.

In the far north was the set of burned layers that made up Locus 321. These often made U shapes, pushed up against something on both sides. Above them, however, were layers of harder material, brick-like and clay. These layers sloped down to the south, severely in some cases, and ended against more brick fall in the middle of the cut. This was also where the curved plaster lines were noted in the floor. Something was definitely here. Individual bricks, though, were hard to make out. Some were clear enough near the ash layers, and these slumped inward, falling into the ash in places but making an overall dome of sorts surrounding the ash. To the south, layers flattened out somewhat and in the far south, near the doorway, bricks were much clearer and I was able to follow them in their laid format. Here had probably been a wall originally, but most of it was not in the unit, only in the SW corner. North of that, there were bricks but in good placement. This was wall fall and when it fell it probably landed atop and against the domed structure in the north.

Michael and I spent the afternoon discussing what it could all mean. We looked carefully at the stratigraphy and the scale drawing I’d made of it all, spraying a mist of water on the wall to bring out the differences in color and texture more clearly. We knew there were three floors in the south and central areas, all covered with ash, heavy in places. The highest floor ended against the curved plaster lines and these were probably part of the outside of the domed feature in the north. It was a long way from the curve to the ash, however, (about 2 meters) and the ash seemed to be the center of the dome. Indeed, we deduced it could only be a very large oven.

Domed ovens are still common in the Middle East. They are used to bake bread and cook other foodstuffs. In fact, the word for such an oven is tanoor and we use this word for most burning/cooking features. But some tanoors are quite large, and often are found in courtyards (due to the smoke they create, they are not often inside buildings). Could this northern area have been an exterior space in the mid-third millennium? After the walls nearby collapsed, the whole area was leveled and packed down to put a small version of the temple atop. Inside this temple, pits were dug (for the storage of grain?) Then, with the second floor of the temple, walls were expanded to the north and a good deal of rebuilding occurred. Finally, the third floor of the temple was put down, covering the pits completely and this final version burned around 2150BC.

User: matociquala Date: 2008-07-23 08:22 Subject: Re: Book sale paypal payments... Security: Public Mood: confused Tags: unburdening my shelf

Guys, when you send money, you really do need to put your identifying information and what book/s you ordered in the comment field, or (unless I can figure it out from the amount) I have no way of knowing who you are!!!

User: jaylake Date: 2008-07-23 04:18 Subject: [links] Link salad for a hump day Security: Public Tags: books, cancer, escapement, green, links, personal, politics, science, writing

Jonathan Strahan comments passim on Green and Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ] — He asks a question I’ve wondered about myself. Also, bonus kenscholes mentioned.

“Mind Meld” from SF Signal on worldbuilding — In which I was invited to play.

will-couvillier with news about the return of James Gunn’s online writing workshop — Go check it out.

Mary Robinette Kowal builds me a new colon — She has the technology. She will make me stronger than I was before.

Cake Wrecks — Hahahahahah. (Thanks to danjite.)

APOD with another astonishing image of Martian terrain — The post is titled “High Cliffs Surrounding Echus Chasma on Mars.” I want to put a city in that crater.

Global Warming distortion from the right wing noise machine — An overview at Cocktail Party Physics (Hat tip to Bad Astronomy Blog, which has been on a roll lately.)

The US Military’s sleep reduction program — (Hat tip to Freakonomics.)

7/23/08
Time in saddle: n/a (20 minute walk instead)
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: Green by Jay Lake

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

User: jaylake Date: 2008-07-23 04:02 Subject: [writing] Doorways to the country of my dreams Security: Public Tags: dreams, personal, writing

Last night I dreamt that ericjamesstone and I were hanging out. (Which would be fun if it happened IRL.) We’d had lunch and gone walking in a greenspace on a college campus, talking politics. He went to his car to get something, and I was mugged by a drunk homeless guy and his dog while Eric was gone. I was mortally afraid this idiot would punch me in the gut, where my surgical seam is, so I ran into a classroom building, where I met Vonda McIntyre. Moments later I was in a seminar room full of Pacific Northwest writers — brendacooper, Jim Fiscus, Jerry Oltion, a bunch of other folks. I’d been scheduled to moderate a panel on shared world building, and was utterly unprepared, and even unaware.

Is this the writer equivalent of the college anxiety dream about having to take the final exam for the class you thought you’d dropped before the semester started? I woke up laughing at myself.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.